The invention relates to a bearing device for wheel axles, in particular for the axles of a railway car bogie, having enclosed in a bearing housing a wheel bearing comprising an inner ring fitted on the axle and an outer ring aligned with and around the inner ring with rollers, balls or the like between the said ring, and with the inner ring held securely in place by a nut screwed onto the said axle.
Bearing devices for wheel axle shafts, in particular for axle shafts of railway vehicles, are known to be generally in the form of outer or inner bearings. Outer lying bearings are situated on the shaft outside the pair of wheels; inner bearings on the other hand are arranged on the shaft between the wheels. In their construction one differentiates in particular between sliding and roller or ball bearings. These have the function of transmitting the vertically acting weight of the part of the vehicle supported by the vehicle, the forces produced in the rails and acting in the transverse direction due to the steering of the vehicle, and the tensile and braking forces acting in the longitudinal direction.
These forces acting on the axle shaft bearing are normally transmitted to the shaft bearing housing without any springs to cushion the transmission. For the main bearing use is frequently made of cylindrical type roller bearings which roll on an inner ring running round the axle shaft and on an outer ring mounted fixed to the bearing housing. These conventional roller bearings do not permit any angular displacement between the axle bearing and the axle.
The object of the present invention is to develop a bearing device for wheel axles which provides a springing action to cushion the forces acting on the wheel bearing. Furthermore the said device should permit tilting between the axle and the axle bearing housing i.e. it should be possible to move the axle, with respect to the axle bearing housing, over a relatively large angle.